An Early Birthday Celebration

One of the members of our  walking group has a special birthday at the end of August and on Friday we celebrated with a birthday walk for her. Well really it was more eating and drinking than walking. We did start with a short walk around her village.

We admired a picturesque thatched cottage and were invited in for a viewing of this cosy holiday cottage.

There was of course birthday cake which I had made. 

A rose coloured, flavoured and decorated cake with gluten free cupcakes.

I'm not quite sure that it is up to Mary Berry standards!

A Thank You Tea

Anyone who participates in the Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt knows that the prompts are continually in the back of your mind and that you mentally kick yourself if you miss one. I felt like that today. I have had a voucher pinned to my notice board since last September. It was a thank you gift from the Vet Niece and her newlywed husband as a thank you to all four of our family for all that we did helping prepare and clear up from their wedding. Today we finally found a date when we were all available and were able to enjoy it. It was only when I handed the voucher to the waiter that  I realised I should have taken a picture for the hunt  to complete Alternative B A Coupon to Use. I had taken a quick snap of it in case I lost it but it's not really SPSH standard.

However the actual outcome of the coupon was worth photographing so these following pictures are my suggested choice for Coupon to Use.

There were two plates like the selection shown below.

We did it all justice. There was only one scone left on the plates!

The Next Link Up

It's time for another link up for the Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt. I have included quite a few in my blog from time to time but here are a few I have found recently.

2. Stripes.

An alabaster pillar.

A fireplace.

A cactus.

Horse or zebra?

The veg garden

4. Wings

5. Pedal Power 

At Cardiff Bay.

My Great Nephew and my cousin's daughter enjoy a play in the field.

18. Currency.

I see quite a lot of change but was still suprised to be handed these three in one lot of change.

It is interesting to see all the different coins. I am still waiting to see one of the alphabet 10p pieces. Have you seen one?

I have a pot of coins in the drawer and for a bit of fun I have fished out a few coins from before decimalisation. Firstly pennies and halfpennies from the last 4 monarchs.

I remember decimalisation but don't recall many prices from before. I do remember that my school dinner money for the week was this amount.....5 shillings.

Also that a Cadbury Creme egg was 7 old pence. Here are two ways of reaching that price.

Finally we have an honesty box for the eggs. Most people are very trustworthy but we do get foreign currency thrown in by mistake or on purpose I am never sure. These are some of the coins we have had.

I shall soon be popping round to se what everyone else has found.

Take Three Thursday: Looking In

Mary Lou at Patio Postcards runs the Thursday meme "Take Three Thursday" where we post three photos with a connection. This week I have chosen three pictures taken a few weeks ago at Dyffryn Gardens in South Wales. Each photo looks into the large Conservatory from a different direction.

1.

                                                             2.

                                                            

3.

A possibility perhaps for A Framed View for the SPSH! Would you like to see something we saw inside the glasshouse? Yes, of course you would.

A Restored Garden

I have already mentioned that we revisited Dyffryn Gardens at the beginning of July and have already showed some pictures. I realised that I have still got quite a few left so here are some of them.

Things seemed quite dry then but the last month of heat must have had quite an effect on the gardens.

You may recall that we came to this house and gardens in February and bravely walked around them in the pouring rain. We then decided to return when the garden was in full bloom.

Each garden or "room" has a name and is set out in a different style. This is the Lavender Court and Folly.

The Vine Walk.

You will notice that I managed to find quite a few framed views such as this view through the Lavender Court to the Vine Walk.

Then this peep through an archway into the Pompeian Garden.

 There are watercolours painted by Edith Adie  in the 1920's on view in the house of how the gardens were originally laid out. These must have been a great source of information during restoration and suggest that the Paved Court as this garden is known still has a way to go to reach its former glory.

   

The Reflecting Pool has been created where the family swimming pool used to be. It is apparently possible to see Crested Great Newts here.

Looking through to the Theatre Garden.

The Herbaceous Borders were perhaps my favourite garden.

Then we stepped through into the smaller part of the Walled Garden.

The work done is outstanding. The areas still to be fully developed give a good excuse to visit again.

Cardiff Castle

Following on from yesterday I have some more pictures taken at Cardiff Castle which I visited with Student Daughter. We were able to make use of her having a "key" to the castle which gave her free entry and a discount for myself.

It was a blazing hot Saturday with a lot of tourists visiting but the queue to enter proved not to be so bad as it first looked so we were soon heading towards the Norman Keep. It is twelve sided and apparently the finest in Wales. Most of you will know that there is plenty of choice of keeps and castles in Wales. 

The queuing wasn't over as the number of people in the keep is limited so we joined another queue to wait to cross over the moat and ascend the steps to the entrance.

Then after another queue which was somewhat more chaotic with nobody to supervise the flow of people we had a chance to climb up to the top of the tower to the viewing platform.

It was a worthwhile climb with views for miles around in every direction making it quite clear why such a position was chosen. These photos look towards the Castle House with a modern Cardiff behind including the Principality Stadium, home of Welsh rugby.

An opportunity for a framed view couldn't be missed. I lined myself up to take this picture and was interrupted as two Italian youngsters appeared and planted themselves firmly in the opening. There was only one thing to do so after waiting a reasonable amount of time I embarrassed my daughter in a way only a parent can do by calling and gesticulating to the two boys to clear out the way!

                       

We then escaped the scorching sun with a look around the house. It is possible to do a tour but with a full schedule for the day ahead we decided to leave that for another day. The last family to occupy the house and castle was the Bute family the last being the 4th Marquis of Bute. The house is extremely ornate. This is but a taster.

This octagonal staircase can be viewed from the top and bottom. I see however that it is possible to book a private tour with champagne and then propose to your loved one on the staircase. Now why didn't farmer husband think of that 25 years ago?

Our next wander was around some of the covered battlements.

Then past some of the many activities on the lawn.

To a walk under the battlements showing where parts of the castle were used as air raid shelters in World War 2.

Then it was a final walk back along the battlements past the moat and keep.

We saw a lot in a short while but I am sure a second visit would be worthwhile.